Deliberate Dumbing Down of America Public Education

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The Noxious Nineties : c. 1999

and What Gets Rewarded Gets Done Repeatedly

[Ed. Note: This entry demonstrates how every facet of our lives will, in the future, be based on Professor B.F. Skinner’s scientific and manipulative philosophy extensively discussed in this book.]

U.S. S ECRETARY OF E DUCATION R ICHARD R ILEY DELIVERED THE SIXTH S TATE OF A MERICAN Edu cation speech early in 1999 in Long Beach, California. For the reader who has arrived at this point in this book, Riley’s recommendations will come as no surprise. The reader could prob ably have written Riley’s speech, since it covers everything painstakingly and consistently initiated over time using the Hegelian Dialectic, semantic deception and gradualism. Riley’s proposals—including the “communitarian” Together We Can “systems change” in the January, 1999 entry—could have been lifted out of the 1946 Montgomery County Blueprint discussed in the preface to this book. In his February 16 speech Riley called for: Community Partnerships, charter schools, schools open year-round/morning-to-night, “Schools [of the future] serving as centers of com munities”; focus on reading [referring to the “landmark study by the Academy of Science”]; “Democracy of Excellence”; early childhood initiatives [Parents as Teachers, etc.]; school uni forms; violence-prevention programs; “sustained progress” [North Carolina, Maryland, Texas and Kentucky as “successes”—those states which have been struggling to keep their heads above water during the past twenty-five years, ed.]; teacher “quality”; “option schools”; “mag net schools”; school-to-work “opportunities”; and more choices. Obviously, the interpretation of this information depends on one’s definition of Riley’s words! Astoundingly, based on no supportive evidence, Riley said: We know a good deal more about how to turn around low-performing schools: from giving teachers more time for training and collaboration; to redesigning the curriculum; to removing a principal who doesn’t provide leadership; to issuing school report cards that measure real achievement over time; to enforcing effective discipline policies. [Ed. Note: To assist Secretary Riley in his effort to bring “transformation” to the education arena, the writer is providing the reader with a “Recipe for Educational Disaster” which the reader is encouraged to duplicate and send to Riley, others who may hold his position at a future date, elected officials, school superintendents, teachers, and anyone else who could benefit from its sage advice. The credit for the recipe (which has been “doctored up” a bit) will have to go to “anonymous,” for the writer is unable to identify its author, but whoever you are—many, many thanks!

RECIPE FOR EDUCATIONAL DISASTER Combine the following ingredients for a total disaster in education.

Mix together: 1 Plump Federal Government (pits and all) 50 State Education Agencies 2 Liberal Teachers Unions (NEA, AFT) 1 National Diffusion Network